There is a sudden urge to much on a large bag of potato chips or stuff your face with a tub of rocky road ice cream. You can step foot at the nearest convenient store to give in to your yearning. Or you can simply tap that craving away!
It’s called tapping, but in a more formal sense it is referred to as emotional freedom technique of EFT. Just like what the name says, it is purported to be an excellent tool for combating emotional distress, such as when you are craving for unhealthy food, or having a negative emotion or even when attempting to attain a goal.
Basically, it is related to acupuncture — that traditional Chinese healing procedure wherein very fine needles are inserted into strategic points all over your body. The good news about tapping is it does not involve the use of needles, plus only a few points on your body are involved, all of which are easily accessible. This means that you can perform tapping at any given time or place — while you’re grocery shopping or quietly watching a TV sitcom at home.
Tapping is literally tapping certain points on your body, majority of which are located on your head. As you tap on those various points, a positive affirmation is stated over and over again. For instance, you can say “even though I am desperately craving for some chocolate chip cookies right now, I love my body and I will do it no harm.”
Needless to say, the positive affirmation should be devoid of anything that’s negative. Also, you can have your chosen positive affirmation stated out loud or in your mind only.
Before we learn how to do tapping, let us first check out the different points on the body that are tapped in succession with your index and middle fingers:
- The karate chop. This point is the fleshy part right in the middle of your wrist and the base of your pinkie finger.
- The top of the head. If you drew imaginary lines from your ears and nose that went to the top of your head, it’s the point where all of those lines would meet.
- The beginning of the eyebrow. It’s not the center of the eyebrows, but the beginning — it’s to one side.
- The side of the eye. Proponents say that you may tap only the left or right side of the eye. But if your both hands are free, you may actually tap both points at the same time.
- Under the eye. This point is located about an inch below your lower eyelid. Again, you may tap on only on the left or right side, but you may tap on both simultaneously.
- Under the nose. It’s situated right in between your nose and mouth.
- Chin. Despite of what it’s called, it’s not actually the chin that you have to tap while performing tapping — it’s the point located in between your lower lip and chin.
- Collarbone. Again, it’s not the collarbone that is tapped. To locate the spot, place a finger on the U-shaped notch on the top of your breast bone. Go down about an inch, and then move towards the left or right an inch — that’s the spot. Tapping on both sides at the same time may be done.
- Below the underarm. Lastly, it’s the point about 4 inches under the armpits. It’s about the level of the nipples in men, and where the bra strap lands in women.
Now that you know where all the right points are, it’s time to learn how to perform tapping to ward off food cravings:
- Tapping starts from the karate chop point to the point just below the underarms. Repeat tapping from the start until your cravings go away.
- Tap each point using your index finger and middle fingers. Tap each point repeatedly lightly yet firmly, and while you are stating your positive affirmation. After finishing stating your positive affirmation, move to the next point and state it again.
- You may choose to say the positive affirmation out loud, in a whisper or only in your mind.
- Start tapping from the start once you have reached the point below your armpits. Continue repeating tapping until the results you are after is attained.
